Autumn 2013 Book Challenge: The Preliminary List

When I host a book challenge, I like to host a little "pre-link-up" party so everyone can share what they're planning to read. This link-up is not mandatory to join the challenge, and you're not obligated to read the books you list today. It's just a fun way to see what other people are planning to read and get some ideas for categories you're struggling with! See my preliminary list after the jump.

Week in Review: 09.28.2013

Good morning/afternoon/evening, everyone, depending on your corner of the globe! I'm back in the hometown again this weekend for the wedding reception of a family friend, so I'm writing this while alternately trying to drink my coffee and fight off my adorable but persistent mutt from laying his head right on my keyboard.

This week's "best of Instagram" feature is a little different than usual. Instead of showcasing my four most-liked photos on Instagram during the past week, I'm going to show you my non-#bookphotoaday photos (which happens to be exactly four photos!). I'll be doing a recap of the entire Banned Books Week photo challenge on Sunday, so you can see all my bookish photos then. (Or, you can follow me on Instagram at @mcstroup and see them now!)

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The Book Chat: Banned Books

I am pretty darn disappointed in myself right now. I was so excited to blog about banned books for Jessica's Book Chat link-up this week, and now it's almost 10 p.m. and I haven't prepared anything. I really couldn't miss such an important topic, though, so here's just a small handful of banned or challenged books I've read and loved (click on the book covers to see my reviews on Goodreads):

Semi-Charmed Autumn 2013 Book Challenge

Photo via @mcstroup on Instagram

It's time for the first autumn installment of the Semi-Charmed Book Challenge! :) Don't worry, you still have a week to finish up any books you're working on for the summer challenge. That one will end at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, September 30, and the autumn challenge will start at 12 a.m. on Tuesday, October 1. Woohoo!

Let's get started with the general rules. Even if you have participated before, please read the rules as I have made one important change! My re-readers out there will love it. :)

Cityscape on Camera: Granada & Ronda, Spain

Next stop(s) on my European Extravaganza recap: Granada and Ronda, two beautiful towns in the Andalusian region of southern Spain. Seville, which I recapped two weeks ago, is the capital of this region.

Granada is most famous for being the home of the Alhambra (which is where all but a few of the photos below were taken). We also shared a memorable night with Jose, a local gentleman who insisted on showing us the local bar scene. Before you jump to any conclusions, let's just say Jose told me he was sixty ... and then laughed. Because he was definitely older than that. Also, he spoke zero English, so my siblings and I got really good at our conversational Spanish that evening. (Or at least we felt like we were really good from all the vodka-tonics he kept feeding us.) Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that night (just videos haha), but I had to share that story. Meeting locals is definitely the best way to party!

Currently: celebrating my favorite season!

It's the first day of fall! Woohoo! Get ready for an autumn-centric "currently" post today. I absolutely love autumn—it is my favorite season of the year, hands down—but I've been holding off on any autumn posts until the official first day. I'm happy it's finally here!

Autumn pleasures by mcszr3 on Polyvore

reading | Skeletons at the Feast still. I took a short break last week to read Blue Like Jazz because its due date at the library was approaching, but I didn't get the chance to finish it before I had to return it. I've heard great things but honestly wasn't too impressed with the nine chapters I was able to read. Thoughts from anyone who has read it are appreciated!

Week in Review: 09.21.2013

Remember last week when I said the fiance and I were going to be social and go to a church picnic and a sorority alumnae happy hour? Yeah ... we only ended up going to the picnic. Then we just wanted to lie around and watch college football haha. I started my new job on Monday, so I logged my first 40-hour work week in a while, and Jonathan and I had a date at the drive-in theater last night, which is also an item on my 24 Before 24 list! Woohoo! Here's how the rest of the week looked:

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Everyone should read this book.

As soon as I saw the Book Chat prompt for this week ("a book everyone should read once"), I knew exactly which book I was going to choose:

Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher

In fact, my review on Goodreads was simply:

"Wow. Just wow. Everyone should read this book.
It could change your life."

Travel Tuesday: Learning another language ... or not.

Welcome to Travel Tuesday! I have provided a suggested topic for this week, but remember, all travel-related posts are always welcome in my Travel Tuesday link-up. :) The suggested prompt this week is:

How much of a country's language do you learn before visiting?

Personally, while I would love to be multilingual, I know it's not reasonable to learn the language of every country before I visit, even conversationally. Most people I know pick a few key phrases to learn before they arrive, e.g. "Where is the bathroom?" "Where is the train station?" "My name is ..." etc. I always make a point to learn one phrase, and if I've learned that one phrase, I can generally get along with people just fine:

Literary Junkies: September 2013

Note: If you stopped by for Travel Tuesday, don't worry! The link-up will go live at 8 a.m. EST. This week's prompt: How much of a country's official language do you learn before traveling there?

I'm so excited to be co-hosting the Literary Junkies link-up this month! I'm also co-hosting The Book Chat on Thursday, so this is just a lovely literary week for me. :) Literary Junkies is an online book club (active on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads), and we have a link-up once a month where our hosts and co-hosts (me!) come up with a few book-related questions for all our members to answer. Read more after the jump to see this week's questions and my answers!